From the AC-T story:

“At City Council’s June 26 meeting, Councilwoman Esther Manheimer resigned from the airport board. Bellamy was appointed to serve out Manheimer’s term and for a new term that began July 1.

McGrady said Thursday he inserted the provision at Moffitt’s request so as to be consistent with the airport transfer bill’s intent and to keep up good relations with his fellow legislator.”

Seriously? Tim Moffitt doesn’t want the Mayor of Asheville on the Asheville Airport Board, and so Chuck McGrady attaches an illegal amendment to the bill, and the Airport Board’s attorney pretends that not only is it valid, it is retro-active to boot?!?

The legislation creating the new authority clearly prohibited elected officials from serving on the board.  However, the legislation provided for a transition for any public officials who were in the middle of their terms on the old authority board. 

Well, the mayor and the city council tried to pull a quick one by appointing the mayor to a new term beginning July 1.  Hopefully, folks will recognize this for what it really is.  It was just a political stunt.

When we realized what the mayor and city council was trying to do, we simply amended the legislation to strike the provision allowing for a transition for any public officials who might serve on the board. 

There is no “illegal amendment,” and the new authority’s board and its attorney have properly interpreted the law—notwithstanding Barry Summers’ protestations.

So, Mr. McGrady, you are actually admitting that your reaction to a “political stunt” was another “political stunt” and you think your constituents, or Mr. Moffitt’s, are smart enough to see one for what it is but not the other? I think that says a lot for how you both think of the people you represent.

But, tell me, on a scale of 1 to 10, how mortified were you and Mr. Moffitt when you realized that your oh-so-clever legislation had a loophole in it? Was there cursing? Weeping and gnashing of teeth? Or was it more of a cuddling and hugging moment? Did you comfort Mr. Moffitt with a gentle embrace and a promise, “Don’t worry, Timmy, we’ll get those goddamn hippies”?

As you can see, the level of discourse of this matter does not warrant serious consideration and betrays a certain ugly impotence. Go forward, Mr. McGrady, Mr. Moffitt: The political poodles nipping at your ankles can be kicked out the second floor window at any point along the way towards doing what is right for the region.
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Call it a stunt, Rep. McGrady, but they were following the letter of the law. Tim Moffitt saw that the Mayor of Asheville might get a seat on Asheville’s airport authority, (Horrors!), he had you amend the law specifically to keep her off. And you apparently told the AC-T reporter that you did it at the request of, and “to keep up good relations” with, Tim Moffitt. Like your comments on the NC Policy Watch thread, where you spoke about the water Study Committee as if you weren’t a member of it, we notice a tendency on your part to try to distance yourself from the things your more radical GOP colleague does.

But you are in fact responsible for these things, so following that thread, do you agree with Tim’s apparent suggestion that the General Assembly should consider abolishing the City of Asheville?

This situation demonstrates that state law supercedes city law; and for your information, federal law supercedes state law.

Illegal doesn’t mean what you think it does.  Ill advised perhaps, but not illegal.

Your fealty and obsequiousness toward the currently powerful is duly noted, Mr. Peck, but it bears mentioning that Asheville built the reservoirs and Asheville built the airport, while the welfare queens out in the counties voted down bond issues and bided their time until they could simply steal stuff. “The region” you refer to is starved for infrastructure and schooling because the citizenry wouldn’t pay for either, and Asheville’s prudent investments do not belong to “the region.”

From the Depression-era history of Asheville:

“Asheville, amazingly enough, retained the highest per capita debt of any city in the country (approx. $54 million). However, the proud city officials vowed to pay every single cent of the depression bonds that the city owed. Holding to their word, and much to the chagrin of county inhabitants, creditors received their payments and Asheville held its honor.”

http://www.ashevillenow.com/about/history/1930-1940/

So, unlike many cities and towns during the Depression, and over the protests of Buncombe County, the City of Asheville finally paid off it’s debts in 1976. And since for those 40+ years, the City wasn’t taking on more debt-financed urban renewal projects, the original architecture survived, and has now become part of why Asheville is such an attractive tourist destination, and a development-money Golden Goose. Enter the jealous folks who urged the City to welch on it’s debts a generation ago, now seeking to throw out the elected government of Asheville, so to be better able to squeeze every drop of wealth out of the community they had no part in building.

Okay, maybe we can compromise on “wildly deceitful and a violation of House procedure”. The change to explicitly exclude the Mayor was made in a “technical amendment”, which is usually reserved for typos, incorrect addresses, formula changes, etc.

Instead they abused that prerogative to substantively change the bill from anything that was discussed or written in, simply because Tim Moffitt didn’t like the fact that the City of Asheville was following his new rules to the letter, and lawfully appointed the Mayor of Asheville to a term on the Asheville Airport Authority Board.

As I’ve said: the political wheel will turn again, and every hypocritical stance will likely be answered with interest added, and the cycle goes on & on & on…

And currently, while the Chief Villain is Tim Moffitt, the Chief Facilitator is Chuck McGrady.